Monolith Soft founder talks about its productive work environment and healthy work-life balance

In an internal interview from Monolith Soft’s 2024 company brochure, Hirohide Sugiura, one of the three founders of the company, spoke about its strengths- pointing to how it manages to be as productive as it is, while also caring for its employees greatly. Some excerpts are below, translated by a team at Nintendo Everything:

“The fact that we have prepared an environment that people can relax and work easily in [is a strength of ours].”

“One characteristic of Monolith Soft is our work environment. For things such as overtime pay calculated by the minute, or easily-approved paid leave outside of busy times, which are now standard in the gaming industry, we had implemented such measures fairly early on. We have even had other companies in the industry ask us for advice on how to execute these measures.”

“When people are able to secure time to spend with family or live leisurely, that allows them to focus on their work. Since everyone is then able to think more about improving their work performance, we have been able to get estimates on development schedules much easier than in the past.”

“Also, we have gathered many more people who share our views on work-life balance, making this part of our foundation, which is a great asset.”

Monolith Soft started off in 1999 when former Square employee Tetsuya Takahashi left to establish his own studio alongside Yasayuki Honne and Hirohide Sugiura, after he felt like the company was no longer the right place for him to continue working on the Xeno series. Envisioning a game series that would tell a story across hundreds of hours of gameplay and have a timeline spanning billions of in-universe years, Takahashi realized that Square, preoccupied with Final Fantasy, was never going to be the one to bring his vision to life- and thus, Monolith Soft was created.

In the years following its founding, Monolith Soft partnered with Namco and developed classics like Baten Kaitos, but in 2007, Nintendo brought them under its wing, and with the Big N’s support, Monolith Soft set their sights on expanding Xeno under a new subseries. Xenoblade Chronicles, as the subseries became known, just capped off a trilogy last year, fulfilling Takahashi’s ambitious dream from decades ago.

Takahashi’s and Monolith Soft’s struggles over the years have no doubt influenced their workplace philosophy, which is aimed at empowering employees and giving them a reason to stick with the team. Well aware of how limiting a workplace can be to the creative process because of their previous experiences, Monolith Soft seems to have committed itself to making its staff its greatest strength.

Recognizing that strength, Nintendo has relied on Monolith for help on none other than their flagship The Legend of Zelda series. From Skyward Sword to Tears of the Kingdom, Monolith Soft has worked closely with Nintendo on the Zelda series, and even though Xenoblade Chronicles has reached a bookend for now, the studio looks like it is just getting started.

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